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The Christina School Board again delayed a final decision on its three Priority Schools on Tuesday night, saying they wanted to give the school communities time to study a new compromise proposal worked out between district and state officials.

But that decision only came after a sometimes testy debate between board members who urged for a compromise with state officials and those who wanted to take a stand.

The decision means a continuation of the controversial, monthslong back-and-forth between the district and the state over how to best turn around the schools, which serve some of Wilmington's worst neighborhoods.

Originally, the state had said the state and district needed to work out an agreement by last week or Gov. Jack Markell would shut the schools down or hand them over to charters or other outside operators. Some board members originally believed they had to vote Tuesday night or that takeover would occur.

But Sen. Bryan Townsend, whose district includes Christina, said he called Markell's office during the board meeting and the governor's staff said they were willing to further extend the deadline.

The board was originally scheduled to vote on a plan that came out of last-minute negotiations between a team of board members and district administrators and Department of Education staff on Friday.

With that possibility looming, some board members, notably president Fred Polaski and members David Resler and George Evans, urged the board to compromise, even though they said they also weren't happy with some of the items.

"If we do not approve MOUs (memorandum of understanding) at this meeting, [the Department] may very well say 'the game's over,'" said Polaski, before Townsend's announcement. "The question in my mind, is, when will they no longer allow us to delay."

Evans voted against postponing a decision, saying the children in these schools need urgent help.

Others, though, said they would not vote on a plan worked out by a handful of officials after months of work with community groups.

"I'm sick of being bullied by them," said John Young, who frequently blasts the Department. "I'm not going to turn left on our community and the hard work they did."

Perhaps the biggest sticking point remains school leadership. Christina wants to keep the principals currently running the schools in place, but the Department has said two are ineligible and one must pass their approval to stay there.

Young criticized the compromise plan because it did not guarantee the principals their jobs. Polaski said the proposal requires Superintendent Freeman Williams to select the five leaders through a "competency-based review process," so a decision on which people would fill those jobs would come later.

Resler pointed out the compromise means the school leaders "could be" chosen, which was "movement" from the state's previous statements that they couldn't.

The MOU the board was voting on approved a "school leader" to run Bayard and "executive director" and "school leader" for Bancroft and Stubbs. The executive director would be the top boss of the school, while the school leader would spearhead the curriculum and instruction.

Polaski said the Department pushed for that structure.

Young blasted those job titles, saying they seemed like charter schools.

Under the compromise proposal, the school leader would be responsible for selecting school staff to implement the plan. Young and Paige pointed out that it did not guarantee teachers would remain there, though it did not require every teacher re-apply for their jobs or set a mandatory percentage of teachers that must be fired.

Young also complained that the negotiation team left him out of the negotiating process.

"I think how you make the sausage is important," Young said. "And the process for making sausage, has been flawed from the beginning."